the speaker pro tempore: the yeas are 411. the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. pursuant 544 and rut to house resolution 544 and rule 18 the chair declares the state of the union for consideration of 2847. the chair apoints the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. altmire, to preside over the committee of the whole.

the chair: the house will be in order. the house is in the committee of the whole house of the state of the union for consideration of h.r. 2847, which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice and science and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2010 and for other purposes. the chair: pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the first time. the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mollohan and the gentleman from virginia, mr. wolf, will each control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from west virginia.

the committee will be in order. the gentleman from west virginia.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from west virginia. mr. mollohan: mr. chairman, i rise to -- in regard to h.r. 2847, legislation on appropriating funds for commerce, justice and science and related agencies for 2010. mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume in general debate. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mollohan: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, if this is june, it must be appropriation season. and so today, i'm pleased to present to the house the first of the appropriation bills for

fiscal year 2010, h.r. 2847, the commerce, justice, science and related agencies appropriation bill. while the summer may be hot and humid, as is typical in the nation's capital, our days and nights need not belong for the house to fully consider this and the other 11 appropriation bills in regular order, or so we hope. i want to thank the ranking member of this subcommittee with most sincerity for his assistance, help, counsel, guidance in the development of this bill. mr. wolf, mr. frank wolf of virginia was chairman of this committee for a number of years. served on it for a great number of years. we served on it together. he brings to this bill an awful lot of experience and knowledge about it. and that is really helpful as

you work up an appropriation bill. and frank, i appreciate your help and assistance on the bill and the credibility and knowledge you bring to it. i also want to thank publicly and personally the chairman of the full committee, mr. obey, for his assistance in developing this bill. mr. obey's courtesy and assistance in the front office has been appreciated and we also appreciate, mr. chairman, the allocation that you have given us for this bill that has allowed us to do what we have to do, however short the allocation may be. i also would like to recognize the staff, the excellent work of the clerk, john and leadership he has provided to the rest of the staff and all of them have done excellent work, which i appreciate. adrian, dixon, diana, derek, tracy, scott, all with the

subcommittee. mike and john on the minority staff. and then on my personal staff, sali and julie. it's a lot of work putting these appropriation bills if anyone who has been involved in it and they have worked long hours diligently with great competence to move this bill forward. and i most sincerely thank them for the efforts. we couldn't do it without them. mr. chairman, in brief summary, this bill totals $46.4 billion and increases $6.7 over last year, but it is $200 million below the president's request. $30.6 billion in science, technology and innovation, an increase of over $1 billion. within this level, the bill provides $6.9 billion for the

national science foundation and $18.2 billion for nasa. for n.i.s., the bill provides $781 billion and noaa and the committee continues to provide resources consistent with the path identified. it also considers the science and research conducted at noaa and at nasa as critical to the nation's science enterprise just as that performed by nist. for law enforcement and department of justice, the bill provides $27.7 billion, $2 billion for d.e.a. and $1.1 billion for a.t.f. bureau of prisons addresses long critical shortages in staffing and education and drug treatment

and state and local law enforcement. the bill provides $3.4 billion restoring in large part reductions proposed by the administration. programs funded through the office of violence against women, the bill provides an increase of $11 million, including $10 million increase for stop formula grants and $1 million increase for sexual assault victim services. while the funding table and report on the violence against women may appear in the report, the decrease shows because a number of programs have been moved which actually administers those programs. let me repeat, the bill increases funding for the office of violence against women by $11 million. the bill provides a full funding of $298 million for the cops hiring program and other areas within the justice department.

the bill provides $3225 million, an increase for the adam walsh act. with respect to border security, the bill has $1.5 billion, 30% increase over fiscal year 2009. these funds will be used to address firearms and narcotics trafficking between the united states and mexico, an issue that every member of this body has concern and we are pleased to provide these increases. for the second chance act, the bill includes $114 million to develop and implement evidence-based strategies and programs at the federal and state levels to reduce resiffedism and future cost of incarceration. i compliment the committee for the good job they have done with the second chance act and other legislation they are considering. and we are looking forward and appreciate the opportunity to cooperate with them on the funding side.

the initiative across the department of justice is increased investments in law enforcement and prosecution for which the bill provides $155 million and that's an increase of $65 million over fiscal 2009. for scat which the president proposed to eliminate, the bill includes $300 million. with respect to the department of commerce, $4.6 billion is slated for national oceanic and atmospheriadministration, above the request. the bill provides $7.4 million for census, the same level as the budget request. for nasa, the bill provides $18.2 billion, increase of $420 million. investments have been made in earth science to finance the surveys and the recommendation acknowledges, however and this

is important for members to consider, acknowledges that the administration has established a blue ribbon panel, mr. chairman, led by dr. norm auguststein. funds are provided in this bill to continue investments in human space flight at the level at last year. reductions from the budget request should not be viewed by this body in my support or committee's support in nasso's human space flight activities but it's a deferral and taken without prejudice, it's a pause, and an opportunity for the president to establish his vision for human space exploration, looking at the report when it becomes available in august and then for his administration to consider what their vision will be and then most importantly, certainly for our committee, mr. chairman, to

come forward with a realityic future funding scheme for the human space flight -- human space sflorgs program. we -- exploration program. and we look forward to relateic funding levels that we haven't had for many years for human space flight. . the total spending or nasa is an increase over fiscal year 2009 levels and some was provided in the recovery act for nasa activities. moreover, it provides $450 million for legal services, increased by over $90 billion, it's still underfunded, this is

indicative of rising need for legal support for the poor, particularly because of the mortgage crisis. the bill continues existing limitations except that it lifts the current restriction on attorneys' fees that is a brief summary of the bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from virginia. >> i yield myself such time as i may consume and revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the -- the chair: the gentleman is recognized. >> i am pleased to join the chairman in beginning consideration of h.r. 2747 -- 2247 for commerce, justice and science-related agencies. the bill before the house today

addresses a number of national needs and requirements and i think it's important for the record to show that i believe and i think any fair-minded person would to say that the chairman has done a commendable job in balancing the many competing interests and put together a solid bill and fair and even handed way. at times i felt the minority has not been treated very, very fair. i will say with the gentleman we have been treated very, very fair. i think it's important to make sure that everyone knows that we have not been foreclosed from anything. i want to thank the members of the subcommittee for help and assistance, including the ranking member, mr. lewis, the republican members, mr. culberson, mr. ader holt and mr. bonner. i want to thank staffs on both sides of the aisle who spent long hours putting the bill together. dickson butler, adrian simpson, diana simpson, derek knewberry,

and the minority staff, mike ringler and john marten d it is -- martens. overall, the bill as i said includes important increases to priority programs including the needs to address violent crime, particularly crime related to drug trafficking and gangs and the need to boost our nation's competitiveness through more investments in scientific research and improving science and math and education. however, i believe we could have met the most pressing needs by prioritizing within the lower allocation. this allocation given to the subcommittee is $64 billion, $6.8 billion or 11% of 2009 this allocation allows virtually every agency, account, and program to grow and i believe there was more than sufficient amount to address the highest priority needs. the rate of increased spending

in the bill corresponds with the majority's overall budget blueprint which increases discretionary spending over the current fiscal year. since the other party took control of congress, nondefense, nonveterans' affairs has increased by 85%. this rate of spending does not represent a step toward restoring fiscal balance. there was an article today i think on "reuters" mentioning that our nation, we continue the current course, will lose our triple-a bond rate, the earliest date i've ever seen that is 2010, that's 2009 now, that means next year. how we deal with that is really a tough but important issue. some highlights from the department of commerce, the bill includes $13.85 billion, including an increase of $4 billion to conduct the census.

the chairman included funding for trade which i appreciate. and dual-use export control to respond to cyberthreats. the bill includes $27.5 billion above the requests and the f.b.i.'s operating level is funded at the president's request, which is necessary in order to continue current staffing operation levels which also fund the urgent increase in counterterrorism programs. too often we fail to recognize the critical and dangerous work the f.b.i. is doing at home and abroad in order to detect and prevent terrorist attacks. this incredibly important work and the -- the bill strongly supports those efforts while also providing necessary funding for the f.b.i. to fulfill traditional rolls -- roles while addressing problems such as mortgage fraud and

child exploitation and gangs this bill includes a new $35 million initiative to fund the f.b.i.'s safe streets task force. this will fund new task forces, a new position on existing task forces in the areas which is pretty much the entire country plagued by gang violence. it increases state and local law enforcement accounts. fund for scaap is reduced and the chairman appropriately so as a drafted -- has drafted an antidepressant to increase scaap that i hope will pass with bipartisan support. in the area of science, the bill includes an initiative to make science competitive. we have about 95,000 engineers working for the space program and china has about 200,000. so the previous administration

launched the american competitiveness initiative, which included a commitment to double the funding for basic scientific research over 10 years and strengthen the education and encourage entrepreneurship. i'm pleased the chairman has done this and also that the new administration embraced this goal. for the national science foundation, the bill provides $6.9 billion, 6.9% above the current year for research that will set the groundwork for the development of new technologies and science education that will ensure we have a well-educated and skilled workforce to improve competitiveness. for nasa, the bill includes $18.2 billion. this includes the full request for aeronautics, the shuttle program and the international space station, as well as funding above the request for nasa science and education. however, the bill frees if -- freezes funding at the current lefrl for exploration

activities pending the outcome of a blue ribbon panel review of future options. the result is a funding level not consistent to continue the funding level and will result in a severe disruption to the human space exploration program. i look forward to the results of the panel and to working with the chairman and other members to ensure the bill contains sufficient funds to continue human space flight. i want to acknowledge the important language in the bill regarding the release and transfer from guantanamo detainees this bill does not prevent the closure of guantanamo, it seeks odge to ensure that the process of carrying out the executived orer that national security, the security of our communities and the security of our men and women in uniform overseas are the highest priority. it prohibits the release of

detainees into the united states. it also prohibits transfer to the u.s. for prosecution as well as transfers or release to other countries unless and until the administration represents a comprehensive report to the congress on the proposed disposition of each individual. this report will detail security risks and measures to mitigate those risks and will include a certification that state governments have been notified in advance. regarding transfers to other country the report must address the risk of recidivism. some are going to saudi arabia and yemen and saudi arabia has funded many of these radical ma drasass on the pakistan -- madrasas on the pakistan-afghan border, so this asks for risk of recidivism and details the agreements related to the acceptance of individuals transferred.

it places important restrictions and conditions on future transfers and releases. it has become clear in the last few days the administration is rushing to release and tfer as many of these detainees as possible before the will of congress to place restrictions can be ep acted. in close, despite concerns about overall levels of spend, the bill represents the chair's -- chairman's best efforts to distribute allocation he was given to the various competing requirements under the jurisdiction. i commend the chairman and thank the chairman for his openness, thoroughness to the minority and i would say the chairman held a week of hearings on prison reform and we unfortunately have the largest per capita prison population in the world and they were the best hearings that i had seen held in this congress and based on that, i

want to commend mr. mollohan, want to commend mr. mollohan, the council of governments